Are teacher, Unified talks in the offing?

Anticipated survey of member sentiment has yet to materialize, teachers say

In little over a month — on June 30 — one in five teachers in San Diego city schools will lose their job and health benefits. The very next day — July 1 — the district will hand out the first of three successive pay raises to the remaining teachers.

Pay raises or jobs?

That’s the multimillion-dollar question that the teachers union and the district are grappling with as the count-down to sweeping layoffs in the San Diego Unified School District begins.

The San Diego Education Association is preparing to survey its 7,000 members on the matter to determine what kind of deal it might strike with the district. It’s something San Diego Unified has been waiting for since last summer when they first called for union concessions to save jobs by forgoing the pay raises, continuing furloughs, or establishing other agreements that could hinge on the outcome of Gov. Jerry Brown’s November ballot measure to raises taxes for education.

Union President Bill Freeman has not said how he will issue this eleventh-hour survey to teachers, except to say that he would not use email. There is a lot riding on the survey, since Freeman said the responses will determine how the union acts.

He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

School board President John Lee Evans said there is a new sense of hope in recent days that layoffs might cancelled before school starts in September. He expects the union to send a budget analyst to the district to review San Diego Unified’s finances, which Evans said would “show there are no hidden pots of money.”

“There seems to be some movement on their (the union’s) side and could lead to us sitting down for some talks,” Evans said.

School board President John Lee Evans said there is a new sense of hope in recent days that layoffs might cancelled before school starts in September. He expects the union to send a budget analyst to the district to review San Diego Unified’s finances, which Evans said would “show there are no hidden pots of money.”

“There seems to be some movement on their (the union’s) side and could lead to us sitting down for some talks,” Evans said.

With class sizes and jobs on the line, many educators and parents throughout California’s second-largest school system are watching closely. Sharon Fargason, a third-grade teacher at Fay Elementary School, is eager to tell the union she wants to save jobs. Of the 27 teachers at Fay, 26 have been laid off — including Fargason. In all, more than 1,500 teachers face layoffs.

“At this point, it’s not going to get any better. We are going to have to give stuff up for our kids, “ she said. “But here’s what’s frustrating, we haven’t heard from the union. Where is the survey? What exactly is on the table? If we extend furloughs, how many jobs would that save? What about raises?”

Cindy Marten, principal at Central Elementary School, is pushing her faculty to participate in any union survey that may come their way.